Crown Prince announces project NEOM , Future Destination

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced today the launch of NEOM project.

The project NEOM comes within the framework of the ambitious vision 2030 to transform the Kingdom into a pioneering global model in all aspects of life by focusing on attracting value chains to industries and technology within the project.

The Crown Prince stated during his announcement of the launch of the project that, The NEOM region will focus on nine specialized investment sectors targeting the future of human civilization including the future of energy and water, the future of transport, the future of biotechnologies, the future of food, the future of technical and digital sciences, the future of advanced industrialization, the future of information and media production, the future of entertainment and the future of living which is the mainstay of other sectors in order to stimulate growth and economic diversification, enable manufacturing processes, and create and promote the local industry at a global level. All that will lead to create job opportunities, contribute to increasing the Kingdom s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The project NEOM will attract private investments and governmental investments and partnerships and it will be supported by more than $ 500 billion in the coming years by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Public Investment Fund, as well as local and international investors.

The project region is characterized by important characteristics, notably the strategic location that allows it to be the meeting point of the best in the Arab region, Asia, Africa, Europe and America. The region is located on the north west of the Kingdom on an area of 26,500 square kilometers overlooking from the North and West the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba with a length of 468 kilometers surrounded from the East by mountains with a height of 2,500 meters in addition to the beautiful breeze which contributes to moderate temperatures, and the sun and wind will allow the project region full dependence on alternative energy.

Among foundations on which NEOM project are based its overlooking the Red Sea coast, which is the major economic artery, through which about 10% of the world trade movement passes and its location is considered as an axis connecting the three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa as 70% of the world's population can have access to the site within a maximum of 8 hours, allowing the world's best knowledge, technology, research, education, living and work to be gathered. The site will also be the main entrance to King Salman Causeway, which will link Asia and Africa, enhancing its position and economic importance.

"NEOM" project will include territories within the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, to be the first private zone extending among three countries.

The financing component and financial capacity are of the main components of the project, which will depend on the Saudi economy in particular backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has recently become a major global fund with huge investment potentials and access to a large network of investors and major companies around the world to be employed to make the project a success.

NEOM project will serve as a linking point for economic axes, attracting global capital and investment, thus the PIF will get huge returns on the long term, contributing to strengthening the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economy and generating high returns for investors. The project will also limit the leakage of funds abroad the Kingdom and aim to be one of the most important economic and scientific capitals in the world.

Attracting international investors to the region and involving them in its development and construction whether by them for their own benefit, is one of the main possibilities for the success of this project and its most attractive elements which will help them to grow and prosper in their businesses and this is confirmed by the high flexibility to develop regulations and legislations by the investors and promote the technical and community's innovation in accordance with international best practices, as the project region regulations are independent of the Kingdom's ones except sovereignty.

Crown Prince said that the ''NEOM'' region will be built from the ground up which will give it exceptional opportunities distinguishing it from the rest of other regions that have grown and developed over hundreds of years and we will take this opportunity to build a new way of life with great economic potentials. The future technologies to develop NEOM region include unique advantages, some of them are in smart mobility solutions starting from self-driving to self-driving aircraft, modern methods of agriculture and food production, health care concerns with a human being for his welfare, free high-speed Internet networks or so-called "digital air, continuing free internet learning at highest international standards, integrated digital government services that provide all services to all by simply touching, new standards for building codes for carbon-free homes, and an innovative design for the NEOM region that stimulates walking and using a bicycle reinforced by renewable energy sources. All of this will create a new way of life that takes into account the ambitions and aspirations of a human being and applying the latest world-class technology.

NEOM project aims to achieve its ambitious goals of making the region to be one of the safest in the world, if not the most, by using the latest global technologies in the field of security and safety, and enhancing the competencies of public life activities in order to protect the population, visitors and investors.

All services and procedures will be automated by 100% so that the NEOM project will be the most efficient one in the world, therefore they will be applied to all activities such as legal, governmental, investment measures and others. The entire region will be subject to the highest standards of global sustainability, and all transactions, procedures and proceedings will be electronic without using papers.

The concept of the workforce for the new economy will be vigorously pursued and based on attracting high-quality human resources and competencies in order to get enough time for innovation, decisions-making and enterprises leadership. As for repeated and arduous tasks, they will be carried out by an enormous number of robots, which may exceed the population making the region's per capita of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the highest in the world. All of these components will put the NEOM project in the forefront in terms of the efficiency of provided services to become the best one for living in the world.